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29 Dec 2012

This post is a review of 2012. It was inspired by a lovely tag. I found a version of this tag on the blog Heart to breathe. And I found a really nice adaptation at Selbstbewusst leben. My version is a mixture of both.

Prevalent feeling 2012? Last year was quite mixed. Although I surely felt a lot of happiness in 2012 and now in retrospective it also turns out to have been a great year, I also suffered a lot of fear and anxiety due to my thesis. When I started to meditate in September, however, I found a great way to relaxation and slowly gained back control over my life and my time. So, for me meditation was one of the greatest discoveries of 2012.

Done for the first time in 2012? Meditation, Qi Gong, Pilates (I mean real Pilates and not just some bums-tums-and-legs training called "Pilates" ;-))

Done 2012 after a long time again? Yoga. But I didn't like it, unfotunately, because the Yoga teacher was not that great. I don't think that I'll give it a try again in 2013, but surely later in a couple of years.

Unfortunately not done at all in 2012? Knitting. I miss it a lot. Hopefully, I will be able to do it again in 2013.

Learned lessons: Amongst others, I learned how to let go and this made a huge change in my life. But I also learned a ton of other stuff. 2012 was the year with the most insights concerning self-development, relationships and health and sports. Looking back, I feel so much wiser than before and although it was a year with ups and downs, I managed to make huge progress - even if it might not be that visible. I did a lot of foundation work and especially at the end of the year, it really paid off. :-)

Insight of the year? I'm the one in control and attitude is everything.

16 Dec 2012

Here are a couple of details on my MAC order of last week (I posted a summary of all hauls recently here). Besides showing my new MAC items, I'd like to show you the differences between the old 15 palette and the new 15 palette as the new one is available in Germany only since November (and in the US it was released in August or September). Hence, it is new and I have not found any comparison yet.

In this post, you can see my MAC order in the right bottom of the picture. There, the palette is still in its packaging. Have a look here at my order completely unpacked (actually even more than unpacked as I already filled the palette with my bright base eye shadows :-)):

11 Dec 2012

I have been tagged by Fräulein Kitsch to answer the 11 things tag. As it is a quite comprehensive tag, I divided it into two parts. Here you can read the first part where I follow the first rule of the tag and write 11 things about myself.

The following rules apply to the persons that have been tagged by the 11 things tag. The parts that are done are striked (klicking on the text leads you to the corresponding post):

What career aspiration did you have when you were a child? Would you still like to work in this area?

Actually, I only started to think about having a job when I turned 12 or 13. Before that I didn't have any kind of career aspiration. ;-) As a teenager I considered two career options and both are still somehow accompanying me. Inspired by Bonnie from the TV series Knight Rider, I wanted to do something with Artificial Intelligence and to maybe create an artificial intelligence like K.I.T. Afterwards, I became interested in psychology and considered studying psychology - but I didn't have a proper vision about what exactly I would do with it. Both areas are still relevant in my life and I think that they are very much related.

What was the most embarassing thing that happened to you (and that you are willing to share)?

I really don't remember (anymore?). I often blunder but I just don't feel embarrassed about it anymore since a couple of years. Shit happens to everyone, so why should we waste our precious time with feeling ashamed? ;-)

If you were reincarnated after death: how would you be reborn?

I don't know whether I already deserve to get into the Nirwana but I'd like to go there. I'd also be fine with being reborn as a human again - but I think that this one life is enough. Maybe, however, it would be nice to be reborn as a human man. ;-) I definitely don't want to become some kind of animal or plant. This would be too boring for me as I wouldn't be able to have discussions anymore.

Is there any protagonist of a book you can identify with?

That is a difficult question because I prefer to read non fiction books. Maybe Fred "Bogus" Trumper from the Watermethod man by John Irving.

Flower bouquet or potted plant?

Flower bouquet. Unfortunately, I cannot take care of plants and they die very fast when I am responsible for them. And then I feel terrible.

Do you wear sweat pants or jeans at home?Jeans.

Have you ever got a really aweful present?

Not really aweful but of course I also got a lot of crappy presents. I have decluttered them all this year. ;-)

The UK or the US?

That is a difficult question again. Probably the UK because it is not far away. But the US is a great country, too. For me, the only thing that matters is that I can speak English. ;-)

If your friends had to describe you in 3 words what would they say?

I just asked a friend because I wouldn't know what I'd say as a friend of mine. She said: balanced, curious and helpful. I just mention it uncommented.

White or black? grey

Do you believe in paranormal activities?No.

And here are my questions:

How and why did you start blogging?

How much time a week do you invest into your blog and do you think that this is too much or not enough?

What do you love to do most (except for blogging :-))?

What do you cook when you come home after a tough day and you're very hungry?

Which book is your favourite book and why?

Do you prefer to organize or rather to search for things?

Do you have a pet? If yes what kind of pet (and what is its name?)? If not, would you like to have one?

TV-series or movie?

What is the task you catch yourself procrastinating most often? How do you manage to get over procrastination then?

Living means ...

What is the most annoying thing with other persons for you?

I ask the following bloggers and hope that they all are up to the game as I'm looking very much forward to read their answers. :-)

7 Dec 2012

It's a bit funny and maybe I should also feel a bit embarassed to show you my huge haul right after having published my post where I rave about minimalism and admit that I'm hooked on minimalism. But I am not embarassed at all. Life is as it is and you gotta make exceptions! ;-)

So, this week was an exception of my general path towards minimalism and sacrifice. (I'm just kidding ;-) - of course this is no sacrifice.) Here are my hauls of the first December days:

As I was running out of hair dye I purchased hair dye by Khadi and a thermometer for mixing and applying it properly. The other things were just presents by the online shop I ordered with. (Thank you very much and huge compliments: the order arrived within 2 days.)

I also had to try a batiste dry shampoo that everyone is raving about and while ordering two of them I also ended up buying another blush by NYX with Douglas (but hey, I just decluttered 5 of them and this colour is really great ;-)). Besides I also purchased an eyebrow liner by NYX and a newly released Lavera shower gel.

In my favourite DM I stumbled upon the newly released Alverde Perfect Basics Limited edition and had to purchase an eyeliner brush, a really impressive matte bronzer and a highlighter as well as 2 mascaras (black and dark blue), 2 amazing lip sticks and an eyeliner.

As I am constantly raving about the Sephora angled IT brush for eyeliners, I had to order a second one and - of course as I don't order that often with Sephora - I had to buy a couple of additional things. Amongst others I bought 2 other great brushes by Sephora and a couple of other really great Sephora products like a set of 3 bags, a micellar water and cotton pads. The other items were samples that I didn't order.

In my favourite local book store, I bought a couple of Yankee candle samplers and a chai tea powder which I adore. This yields the best chai ever.

Also, as here in Germany the new MAC 15 palettes have been released - finally, everyone else seems to have them already -, I had to order one. And of course I also ordered 2 eye shadow refills: Copperplate and Charcoal Brown. Love them. And I also love the new 15-Palettes by MAC. They look sophisticated and beautiful. I'll dedicate a post to them soon.

Love my new items. The remaining days of December will be ruled by minimalism and sacrifice. I swear. ;-)

In my quest to become more organized I am experimenting with different kinds of organization tools. An example of such kind of an organization tool is a notebook. Plain and old style and non digital. I keep notes digitally, too, but for quick and dirty note taking, I prefer a classic notebook based on paper. In this post I want to show you my most elegant tool for taking notes. It might not be the most practical one but there is no doubt that it is a very useful and very elegant one.

Have a look at my Dixi refillable notebook in black leather by the swedish company Ordning & Reda. I love it and currently, I use it all the time. This is how it looks:

3 Dec 2012

In November, I had a lot of beauty favourites. My face care consisted of only great products. And after having used up all those unloved Bodyshop body butters, I started to treat myself with a great body butter by Soap & Glory and there were also a lot of other great products I enjoyed using in November. Have a look for yourself:

1 Dec 2012

It is time for an empties post again. Again, I successfully used up a lot of stuff. Altogether, 46 beauty items left me in November. And believe it or not: I was able to use up 860 ml of body butter and body lotion last month. Hence, I got rid of all my Bodyshop items (I kept the boxes of the body butters that are gone now, however, in order to use them as fancy storage boxes for other items - see them here being cleaned and here waiting to be filled). Finally my body lotion stash shrinks - at last! :-)

With decluttering, November might have been one of my best months ever. I was able to declutter 17 make up items, a couple of them were even quite expensive but I just don't like them or don't use them (and why should I keep them then even if I like them?) or they've gone bad, unfortunately, because they are really old. So, no guilt due to the waste, just gladness that these items are gone and my drawers are getting emptier and emptier! I'm nearly swimming in space and my stash continuously keeps to shrink and I enjoy the remaining products so much more! :-)

Here is a picture of all the beauty items that left me in November:

A short summary and my thoughts about the emptied/decluttered products:

28 Nov 2012

It started to get really cold outside. In this season, what can be nicer and more relaxing that to sit besides a candle? While I haven't tried any scented candles at all in the last years, this autumn I discovered scented candles and became a bit obsessed with them. This is how my desk currently looks like:

On the picture, you can see my current favourite candle Feu de Bois by Diptyque. I adore this candle and the scent it has. I stumbled upon it on Meg's blog and had to buy it myself then too. I don't like how it smells when it does not burn, but when it burns, the scent is just wonderful. It smells like a fireplace. The scent is wonderful and very soothing and relaxing. Love it.

The other candle shown in the picture is Real Luxury by NEOM. This is nice but not as overwhelmingly great as Feu de Bois. Both are travel sized because I am still experimenting. However, I might purchase a big one soon as well. But I am not sure whether the big ones are not too bulky.

I love to burn my candles while meditating, while journaling, while reading, while writing my theses, etc. I could burn them all the time. ;-)

26 Nov 2012

Love that advice. It's a piece of advice that sometimes can be very hard to follow. Last month, however, I left something that no longer served me as it was not helping me to grow anymore (on the contrary) and, hence, didn't make me happy anymore. I love to grow and get new insights and walking away from that specific thing was the best I did for quite some time now.

Was there anything you walked away from recently in order to serve your happiness and your natural need for growth?

25 Nov 2012

I have been tagged by Fräulein Kitsch to answer the 11 things tag. This the first time someone tagged me. It's a pretty tough tag that involves a lot of work and also some honest personal answers but I'm very happy that I've been tagged and feel very honored! Thanks a lot Fräulein Kitsch! As it is the first time I've been tagged, I decided to post my answers bilingual in english and in german. For the german version, have a look below. Furthermore, I divide the tag onto two posts, because it is pretty comprehensive. This post presents the first part of the tag. Very soon, I'll post the second part.

These are the rules of the 11 things tag:

write 11 things about yourself

answer the 11questions you're asked by the tagger to answer

devise 11 questions and tag 11 bloggers to answer them (the bloggers should have less than 200 readers if possible)

inform these bloggers

tagging backwards is not allowed

There is no rule about breaking up the work. Hence, as mentioned above, I'll now first write 11 things about myself and afterwards answer the questions, Fräulein Kitsch asked me in another post and pose my questions to the bloggers I want to tag.

Here are 11 things about myself:

I am obsessed with anything related to good posture. This is why I am doing Pilates and Qi Gong at the moment in the first place and this also why I started to do horseback riding. Interestingly, however, I currently discover Qi Gong as something that has so much more to offer (but it indeed also is a really great training for the deep torso muscles that support our posture ;-)). But it was the same with horseback riding. It happens often that we start doing something with a specific aim in mind and discover new features of the activity that we appreciate as well and adds to the fun.

I have been a very unorganized person myself but I am currently working very hard to become organized and the more organized I become the less understanding I have for a lack of organization. I am a bit embarassed to admit that but sometimes disorganization can annoy me very much.

It is not really something new (see my post on minimalism) but I am currently obsessed with striving after minimalism and I have managed to declutter half of my wardrobe in the last 12 months. Currently, I also try to shrink my beauty possessions and other possessions as discussed in my Minimalism post I recently posted.

Through realizing what minimalism really is, I discovered my love for limitations. I limit space for item categories, I limit time for certain endeavours and I think very much about all kinds of limitations and start to appreciate them. Recently I even thought that it's great that even our life has a limitation. Yeah, I know, I'm becoming strange ... ;-)

I cannot tolerate any alcohol and don't like to be drunk at all. This is why I discovered the world of alcohol-free alcoholic beverages. Today I am sucker for alcohol-free beer and alcohol-free cocktails and people who don't know me well easily think that I am hard drinker because I drink a lot of drinks that look like alcoholic beverages. Sometimes I even start at lunch. ;-) I have a lot of fun when I am admired for being such a hard drinker. :-)

I taught myself how to knit with youtube videos 3 years ago. I love to knit because it is is a really meditative and soothing hobby. Unfortunately, I currently don't have time to pursue this hobby at the moment and I really miss it. Here are a couple of things I knit during the last 3 years: bow scarf, bow scarf again, crooked cowl

I'd love to learn how to sew and also experiment with carpentry. :-)

I cannot watch horror films. Unfortunately, sleep is something that doesn't come easily to me anyway but when I additionally watch horror films, I can feel haunted for weeks. Years ago I saw an advertisement for a really creepy movie where something came out of the head of somebody who was showering. Afterwards I had a hard time showering for weeks.

I love watching TV-series and enjoy doing it while cycling each morning on my bike ergometer.

I love to ask a ton of questions and discuss things deeply. Some people get annoyed. Others think that I cannot manage my life on my own because I sometimes ask every bullshit that crosses my mind. ;-) But I also had really great discussions because I am not afraid to ask any bullshit that crosses my mind. Hence, everything has it's pros and cons. ;-)

I drink too much. I might be the only person on this earth who does not need to remind herself to drink more. Each day, I drink tons and tons of coffee, tea, water, ... (1.5 liters of coffee and green tea and at least 1.5 liters of herbal tea and/or water and juice). I cannot sit anywhere with something to drink besides me. And this is why I also have to go to the bathroom all the time. Close friends even make fun of me having to go to the bathroom all the time. Therefore, I currently keep tracking what I drink and how much I drink of it in order to maybe shrink the amount a bit or to take care to drink more healthy drinks.

20 Nov 2012

I love the video above. It has been made by Leo Babauta from zenhabits as an advertisement for his book The power of less (haven't read it yet but it's on my to read list ;-)). The video is expressing exactly how I feel right now too. Actually, I felt attracted to minimalism for a couple of years now. But I didn't want to get rid of stuff, interestingly, I rather wanted to digitize it and store it on tiny hard disks. This is why I struggled with minimalism a lot and I realized recently that I wasn't a minimalist at all as I focused on space solely and this is just a tiny fragment of what minimalism really is. There are many things that cannot be digitized and that we have to keep in their physical form. E.g. clothes, beauty items, our furniture and many more. I also have to admit - although I love digital books, the software for reading them sometimes spoils the party for me, too. It does not allow to add a dog-ear to book pages, underline words and sentences in different colours, write thoughts at the border of the page and such kinds of things that I love to do with my books. So, of course although I own a lot of digital books, I still do purchase, keep and read many books the old style as well.

My wardrobe and my beauty collection (and other collections) were and still are quite huge because I love to experiment and also love to have a choice. These collections were even bigger last year. Last year I started to force myself to use up my beauty items and while doing so, I discovered that I didn't like many of these items or that the shades didn't match and this is why I started to experiment more and this lead to many additional purchases. Although these purchase were expensive, they also very valuable because I got to know more about colours, makeup and what suits me and what I like and how I like myself to look like in different occasions. While evaluating and experimenting with beauty, I ended up purchasing a lot of new stuff and there were times when my collection also grew more than it shrunk. (I just made an inventory of my body lotions here and I was pretty shocked when I realized how huge the amount is. ;-)) But by means of my monthly empties, I established a routine of experimenting and decluttering and using up and this is something that I am very proud of today. My beauty stuff is used and although it seems like I'm hoarding, it is not real hoarding because I try, experiment and use stuff up and also declutter on a regular basis. In the future, however, I want to shrink the amount of beauty items that I possess much more.

12 Nov 2012

Chrissi from forever in love with shopping has started a tag with questions around body lotion which I find quite interesting. I have a ton of body lotions and actually wanted to do an inventory anyway. Hence, this tag comes just at the right time and this is what today's post will be about: my body care products and Chrissi's tag on that topic.

Because of the huge amount of body lotions, I started to take care to not buy too many further items in general. But unfortunately, I get weak from time to time just like recently when I stumbled upon two new limited editions by Alverde. I try to use up my stuff but I guess that it will take me forever to use everything up and I won't be able to stay strong until the whole amount of bodylotions that I own is gone. After all, I love body lotions. Nevertheless, I think an inventory and a plan for using up all those products can help me to get rid of them. One day, I want to have only such a small amount of products that I can use up within one or at most two months.

Have a look at my current collection of body lotions/body butters/body oils/body care products (the two pictures show the same collection from two perspectives):

I just counted them and I am really embarrassed to admit that I own 45 items of body lotion, body butter, body oil and other kinds of body care products. Of these are:3 body oils (2 full-size, 1 sample), 28 body lotions (18 full-size and 10 samples), 11 body butters (6 full-size, 5 samples), 3 multi-purpose creams (1 full-size, 2 samples). So, in this huge mess of body care products, I might even be a bit lucky that only 27 of these products are full-size and the remaining 18 are samples. ;-)

In summary, I have to keep up using that stuff in the pace that I currently already have when using up my beauty products. In the last 6 months (in May I started this blog and my first beauty empties post dates back to May/June this year), I was able to empty 32 items of body care products (17 full-size, 15 samples) - have a look at my empties posts. So, for the amount of products shown above, I'll probably need around 9 to 10 months to use it up (note however, that I might be able to use more body care products during the winter - I really hope to be able to use more body care products in the next 6 months than I was able to use in the last 6 months).

11 Nov 2012

8 Nov 2012

Hi guys! How are you getting along with the 21-day meditation challenge? I hope you have seen my link to the interview of Oprah Winfrey with Deepak Chopra. I linked it in my comment to my first post announcing the 21-day meditation challenge. It's a lovely interview and Deepak is explaining and motivating meditation. Try to watch it as soon as possible because I think it won't be available for a long time.

I started the meditation challenge on the 6th of November in the morning. I am using this challenge to also get ahead with my Qi Gong routine with which I really have struggled a lot. My mornings were completely stuffed with biking and showering and meditation didn't fit in anymore. Hence, I tried hard to do it in the evening but it just didn't work. I have to admit that I wanted to do it every evening but did it only for 3 times in the last 2 months.

So, when I discovered the 21-day meditation challenge, I had to take the chance and change my routine. I moved biking to the early evening and have put meditation into the morning. This is a major change and I was worried to loose my biking habit. But as biking is already a pretty ingrained habit (I'm doing it now for months on a daily basis), I am doing it in the evening, too. I admit that I lost a day in transition but the following day I was able to catch up. And the new habit of meditation which I try to create, is tough but as I usually biked at that time in the morning anyway, I am keeping up with it. Furthermore, the meditation podcasts of Deepak Chopra are pure fun and it's such a joy to follow them. But I am doing it the tough way like I've learned it in my Qi Gong class. And I also try to do a couple of Qi Gong moving exercises before meditating in a Qi Gong pose while listening to Deepak Chopra's meditation podcasts. However, as they are so much fun and as I am no native speaker, I like to listen to each of the podcasts for several times. E.g. I listened to the first podcast for 3 mornings now and will listen to the second podcast starting from tomorrow morning.

4 Nov 2012

Tomorrow, a 21-day meditation challenge with Deepak Chopra will start and I will participate and would like to invite you to participate as well. (I'd like to also take the opportunity to recommend reading the blog HappyIch of Sue because it is there where I read about this meditation challenge for the first time. Sue also already participated in such a 21-day meditation by Deepak Chopra in July and reviewed it on her blog.)

Meditation is not new to me. I started to meditate in September to alleviate the stress my thesis is putting me through by starting a zen buddhistic meditation course. Actually, it is a Qi Gong course, but we are mostly meditating. I don't know how common it is to meditate within Qi Gong courses but in my course we are doing it all the time. Currently, I am meditating once a week within that course and afterwards I feel incredibly relaxed and happy and powerful and this sometimes even holds for a couple of days afterwards. I'm quite impressed by the results. Unfortunately, I am still finding it quite difficult to practice meditation also on my own at home. This is why I am looking very much forward to join the 21-day challenge of Deepak Chopra. It will be my first meditation with Deepak Chopra and also my first guided meditation as my meditation practice in my course hasn't been guided yet.

The meditation challenge that will start tomorrow will be all about "Creating Abundance". The participants will be taken to a journey to an authentic abundance consciousness. According to Deepak, we'll discover what true abundance is, the source from which it springs, how consciousness and the mind affect its flow, and that each and every one of us is worthy and deserving of an abundant life. We will learn how to leverage the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success to manifest our heartfelt intentions and live a more abundant life, attracting more comfort and ease, joy, peace, love, or anything we desire. Sounds great, doesn't it?

Joining the 21-days meditation challenge is free. You can subscribe here either with your facebook account or with your email. Starting from tomorrow, each day a 15-minute guided meditation will be made available. Here you can find more information about Deepak Chopra who is well-known for his books on yoga and meditation.

Are you interested in meditation as well? Will you join the challenge?

3 Nov 2012

Today I have been in the city center and discovered two new limited edition sets by Alverde. Each set consist of a shower gel and a body lotion. As I have made only good experiences with such kinds of Alverde limited edition sets, I wasn't able to hold myself back and bought them both. The sets don't cost that much. Each was available for only 4 Euro.

Here is a picture of my DM haul. I also bought winter chocolate by Alnatura which currently is my favourite choclate. Actually, this is exactly why I went to DM in the first place. :-)

1 Nov 2012

In October I had a lot of fun with a couple of products and I'd like to share that with you. (I know, I should be working on my thesis and will do so immediately again. ;-)).

I loved these cleaning and caring products in October:

These are in more detail:

Blütezeit organic almond showergel: It smells like camomile and I love this scent. It's relaxing and soothing and I enjoyed it very much to start it as I haven't used it up yet. Besides this shower gel, I also loved the Alverde Lemon Love shower gel which I emptied and therefore discussed it already in my October empties post.

Apothekers Lippenbalsam: This is a new discovery. I bought it because it was mentioned by Paddy from Innen und Aussen as her favourite soothing lip balm for the night. It is a pharmacy product and it is really great. I am using it now each evening and my lips look great in the morning. I also like the taste and the scent of this product. It is on its way to becoming a holy grail product for me too.

Lush Therapy massage bar: I love it. It smells great and nurtures the skin. It has to melt when put on the skin and therefore you need a lot of time for applying it by slowly massaging it onto the skin. But actually, this also contributes to the joy of using this product. I.e. being forced to do it slowly can be fun, too. But I admit that I prefer to use it on the weekend because only then I have the time. ;-)

Alverde Apricot nail and cuticle balm: Smells lovely like apricots and nurtures the nails and the cuticles. This one is also on its way to becoming a holy grail product. However, I think that Alverde stopped selling this product. I have to check but last time I had a look at Alverde products at the DM, it was not available. So terrible. I can't understand how this could have happened. I hope that I am wrong and the product is still available.

Concerning makeup products, I enjoyed using these products in October (sorry, the soap is not a makeup product of course. I don't know how it got into the picture below - it is a favorite though and maybe I added it to this picture because I also like to clean my brushes with it ;-)):

29 Oct 2012

This month I was able to get rid of 36 products. I went through my nail polish collection again (this is something I do quite often as you might have observed) and decluttered a lot of nail polishes again. However, don't worry, I still own a ton of them (around 30). Hence, I won't suffer of a lack of nail polishes after this huge decluttering action.

Here is a picture of all products that left me in october (my hair tint by Khadi is missing, sorry, I forgot to add it to the group picture - you can see it below though):

23 Oct 2012

I'm still very busy and don't have much spare time for blogging due to my thesis. I am very sorry guys. :-( However, as I still keep a journal on what I empty beauty wise for myself as a reference (besides of being a lot of fun, journaling such kinds of things also helps me a lot to discover what's best for me), I think it's not so much additional work for me to share my beauty empties with you. Some of you might also be interested in and benefit from my experiences with and my thoughts about the beauty products I try.

Hence, I'll now show you my beauty empties of September: in September, I got rid of 52 products. It's crazy, I know. But I also decluttered a lot of stuff that I didn't want to empty anymore. At the moment, I try to shrink the amount of beauty stuff occupying my bathroom and to just keep those products I really like and enjoy using. I also used up a couple of samples that don't fit to my sex (i.e. some were for men) or my skin type (i.e. some were for combination skin) just in order to get rid of them but to not throw them away.

I also read a lot about color categories and skin color seasons in September and I also (re)discovered that I belong to the summer skin colour category. Actually, I stumbled upon the fact that I am a summer type in the skin color seasons system one or two years ago, but I somehow forgot about it. I personally found it very difficult to find out more about my skin undertone and my color type in the skin color seasons systems. I still don't know what kind of flow I belong to within the summer color category. A webpage that helped me a lot to find out that I am a summer type is the Beautyjunkies Farbtypen F.A.Q. I highly recommend to read this in case you speak german as, unfortunately, it is written in German. For english speakers, however, I recommend to read the book Colour me beautiful by Carole Jackson. As I rediscovered that I belong to the summer skin colour category and also observed that I didn't wear the colours that don't suit me anyway, I decided to declutter a couple of makeup colours that don't suit me at all and haven't been worn often anyway.

I also started to journal my teeth products again because I want to find out how fast I use these products up as well. It's just a journaling issue and shall help me to get more organized and to get a feeling for when something needs to be repurchased because it soon will be empty. In the future, I want to repurchase stuff at the right time and stop hoarding it. ;-)

22 of these 52 products have been decluttered by me. Among those 30 products which I really emptied only 12 products were full size. The others were samples, each with a different amount of content.

Here is a picture of all products, I emptied or decluttered in September:

3 Sep 2012

I don't have that many of you but I appreciate each and every one of you and I am very glad that there are people out there that spend their precious time to stop by at my blog and read my posts about beauty, health and life. Thank you very much! I'm also very glad that my clumsy non-native speaker's english didn't chase you away yet. :-)

My thesis deadline is urging me to adjust my priorities in favour of my thesis. This is why I will stop blogging for now. However, these 4 months that I spent in the blogosphere with you were great months and blogging was a lot of fun and changed my life. I made a great friend overseas (many heartfelt greetings to Jessica from Getting Cheeky) and I really enjoyed being part of the blogging community a lot. Hence, there is no doubt that - sooner rather than later - I'll be back!

For now, however, I have to focus 100% on my thesis. I hope you can understand me and I am looking forward to hopefully meeting you all again when my thesis is delivered.

After my rather bad experience with pink coloured nail polishes like Karl says très chic by Catrice which looks terrible on me (I have given it away in July), I hesitated to buy another nail polish in pink. Especially an expensive one. However I felt magically attracted to Nars Trouville and was lurking about this nail polish for a couple of weeks now. I also love how it looks on Temptalia but I was afraid that it would not look as good on me. Unfortunately, we don't have any Nars here in Germany and therefore getting it would involve a blind order. But when I also saw it on Lily Pebbles in this video here (she wears the nail polish on her nails during the whole video and it looks very beautiful on her), I was not able to hold myself back anymore. I just had to have this nail polish. And I have to say: it was worth the risk. It's the loveliest and most adorable pinks I've ever seen. Have a look at it in the bottle:

2 Sep 2012

This spring, I bought a MAC LE quad palette which I wanted to depot even before I had it in my hands. For me, the new quad palettes by MAC are too bulky and just not handy and manageable enough. The new design came out in 2010 (see a blog post comparing the new and the old design of the MAC quad palettes by MAC Karrie (in german)) - fortunately, the MAC 15 palette has remained unchanged. This is why I do use 4 of them (deconstructed) as shown in my first make up collection overview post.

Since I am lucky to own 3 MAC quad palettes of the old design (I wish I had bought more of them when they still were available ...) which I love for traveling, I am just boycotting the new design. For storing my eye shadows at home, I use 4 MAC 15 palettes which I have deconstructed in order to able to store eye shadows of different (see my make up collection post). For traveling my three 'old design' quads from MAC are more than enough - 12 well chosen eye shadows should be perfect for travelling. Below, you can see them with 4 MAC eye shadows (Shroom, Vanilla, Patina & Concrete)

The palette, I want to depot today is the Shop & Drop palette from the Shop, Shop, Shop, Cook, Cook, Cook collection (see the full LE at Temptalia). In LE quads, the eye shadows are glued into the palette and
this makes the depotting pretty difficult. My first attempts to depot the eye
shadows, were unsuccessfull. Heating the bottom of
the palette did not help in softening the glue and I just did not find a
way to get rid of this crappy packaging.

1 Sep 2012

Last month, I emptied or got rid of 35 products. However, it's a bit of cheating as 9 of the "products" were just samples and 3 of the products were makeup products that I have decluttered and not emptied (note that the lip stick is nearly empty, hence, I do count it as emptied ;-)). I also have not emptied but just decluttered 6 other products. But nevertheless, I do count them all as well. Having got rid of 35 products feels just too great! :-)

31 Aug 2012

Last month I have not posted any link love. I have not read that many blogs in July as it was a really good working month. Unfortunately, August was not so great concerning work progress but I hope that September will be great again. Hence, it looks like
this post category is something that only comes up every couple of months. Now I again feel the urge to share some links with you. Don't be afraid, this time it's not that many links like last time - but there are still pretty many of them. Sorry! I hope you don't feel too overwhelmed to read them! :-)

Here are the posts and articles or just news I enjoyed reading lately:

Isn't this an incredibly cute little kitchen? What I like most about this kitchen is that it is small and there is no exquisite design or incredibly expensive stuff. It also is tiny and could actually be the kitchen of an everyday average person. What makes this kitchen stunning, however, is the exquisite taste of arrangement and structure and organization of the kitchen essentials. Hence, the inhabitant obviously has an extraordinary taste and I feel very much inspired to improve my own (a bit bigger) kitchen that does not look that gorgeous.

29 Aug 2012

In my Pink Box June, there was a 7ml sample of the FlorAyer face cream. I finally found the time and space in my skin care agenda to test it more extensively and here is my review. It is a pretty expensive face cream (around 30 Euro for 50ml) but it is a wonderful face cream with a divine scent that smells in a very soft and sophisticated way like flowers with a slight dominance of roses. It is very nurturing, but not greasy and it feels wonderful on the skin. It is quickly absorbed and it also strengthens the skin from within in a great way. It is a day cream and in the FlorAyer series, there also is a night cream.

28 Aug 2012

This month was very expensive. I have bought a lot of beauty items and as if I didn't have enough body lotions, I also bought two more of them (actually, I could really roll myself from one side to the other in my body lotions - this is how many of them I already have at home).

I have done a small Lavera haul (see also their uk web site). Lavera is a german brand selling organic beauty products. I like the company a lot and have tried different products already. I don't remember any product by Lavera that I didn't like at all. E.g. I adore the wild rose face cream (see also my review of it in my May empties where I was raving about it) and I also liked the Apricot Summer body lotion (see my review of it in my July empties - it seems to not be sold anymore; maybe the scent was disturbing others as well; however, despite the scent this body lotion was great!).

My twist.bag August arrived one week ago on Tuesday the 21st of August. As I have been on holidays, I was not able to show you the content earlier. According to the web site, the parcel has been shipped on the 15th of August. Hence, it took the parcel 6 days to arrive this time.

Again, the products were in a small cotton bag with the word "twist." printed on it:

27 Aug 2012

I have also read "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen in my holidays. It's a wonderful book. I love it. I started this book end of last year already and read more than half of it and loved it. I remember that I read parts of the text to my boyfriend because they were so great. I don't remember anymore what happened then, maybe it was the Christmas chaos, I don't know anymore. However, there was something that took me out the book and this is why it just lied on my bedside table without me reading it since end of December last year. Hence, I took it with me on my holidays this month and finished it there. When I started reading it again, it immediately captivated me again. It's such a great book and I honestly can't understand why I haven't finished it last year already.

Here is a picture of the book on the balcony of the hut where I spent my holidays:

26 Aug 2012

My holidays were great. It was sunny most of the time and everyone was in a good mood. Here is the view out of the window of our room in the hut:

Isn't this just wonderful? :-)

Here is a collage of 6 pictures I took in my holidays:

As you can see, it was a very relaxing holiday with a great landscape and a lot of nature - but not too far away from civilization. In the black forest there unfortunately is no space anymore where you don't have quick access to anything modern. I even had access to the internet there.

25 Aug 2012

In my holidays, I managed to finish Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle. Here is a picture of it in the grass besides my sun cream:

The book was a good and entertaining read. I enjoyed reading it. It is about a woman called Joan who has just faked her death and ran away from her life in Canada to Italy where her past haunts her and she hence spends some time thinking about her life in general and what had happened to her that lead to faking her death. It starts really captivating and continues to be funny and lovely and I like the main character as she is described as being a very interesting and likeable woman but in the end the story becomes a bit weird and it also ends with some kind of a cliffhanger because it is left to the reader to sort out the end properly. More specifically, it ends at some point where I personally would have wanted to know what happens next. I felt left alone in the chaos and in the end the incidents had been overturning. However, except for the last quarter of the book and especially the end I enjoyed reading this book and Margaret Atwood has done a great job in describing the life of Joan and her personality as well as her fears and her thoughts. She comes across very coherent and likeable and thanks to the great writing style of Margaret Atwood I was able to relate to her although we are very different from each other (but we also have made different experiences in life ;-)).

22 Aug 2012

Do you know a German beauty addict that does not dream of Sephora? It seems to be typical human to dream of things that are really hard to get or completely unavailable. Unfortunately, we Germans don't have a Sephora store here in Germany. However, Sephora is a really cool brand (I love e.g. the Sephora #45 brush I bought in May via eBay) and I've been lurking around the
US online shop a lot. Ordering from the US is very expensive though. This is why I haven't bought many products from Sephora up to now. I have rather kept a wishlist which grew with time. From time to time, however, when blog posts pop up on German blogs where holiday shopping at Sephora stores is shown, I catch myself making up some holiday plans just in order to get near to a Sephora shop. Do recognize yourself in this behaviour as well?

Well, in August I stumbled upon the Sephora France online shop and found out that they ship to Germany. What a great discovery! Although I had a couple of years of
french classes at school, my french is not that good anymore. I should
really practice it more often as it seems to be of high value in the beauty world obviously. I had to scramble up all my little left knowledge of french but, fortunately, this was enough to place a proper order. I even found a 15% coupon for the french online shop which I was able to use.

The
shipping costs are pretty high with 13.90 Euro, but Sephora France
ships with UPS and the shipping was really fast. Although it is written
on their page that shipping takes 5 to 7 days, my order arrived on the
4th day after submitting it (including the day on which I ordered). And with the 15% coupon I was able to shrink the shipping costs a bit. As I did not order that much I was not able to cover the shipping costs completely with the
coupon. This order was a test purchase. As I don't have any experiences with the products I ordered, I ordered only few products and mainly small sizes. In case I like the products, I might
repurchase them in bigger versions, however.

This is how my order looked upon arrival (the black box is the present box of Sephora which I took because it was free and I wanted to see how it looks like :-)):

20 Aug 2012

I'm a bit obsessed with women's soccer at the moment - well, actually since last year when the women's soccer world championship took place in Germany. The games were shown on german TV like men's soccer usually does and the men I know that usually watch men's soccer watched them too. I got hooked as well and in the end I had to watch every game. I especially fell in love with the american team as the members of the american team performed much better and some also looked much better than the members of the german team. ;-) (Isn't Hope Solo a really good looking woman? See her e.g. here, here, here, here and here (there she is the third person from the left))

18 Aug 2012

I've just been at the train main station to buy the tickets for my vacation and took the chance to go into an "Ihr Platz". This is a german drug store that you can find in nearly each main station in Germany. It is related with the "Schlecker" drug store which recently went bankrupt. While the staff at the "Ihr Platz" told me a couple of weeks ago that the "Ihr Platz" will survive, it obviously will be closed as well. Today everything was available for the half price and the shelves were nearly empty.

At "Ihr Platz" the brand Nonique is available. Nonique is a southern-german brand offering organic skin care products. As the half prices were very tempting and I like Nonique a lot, I just had to buy a couple of Nonique products. Up to now I haven't been able to find Nonique anywhere else in Germany than at "Schlecker" and at "Ihr Platz". According to their webpage they indeed seem to not have any other trading partners in Germany. Hence, it really is a pitty that both drug store companies have disappeared or will disappear soon. Fortunately, Nonique has opened an online shop for their products, recently, and therefore, ordering their products online is now an option. I really hope that this company will survive although they soon won't have any trading partners in Germany anymore. However, they apparently still have a trading partner in Austria and I really hope that they will soon find other retailers in Germany as well. It would be a pitty if the Nonique products would disappear from the market.

Dear readers, the book review below is written in German again. Many apologies if this causes any inconvenience. (It just does not make any sense to provide an English review for a book that has been written and published only in German up to now.)

17 Aug 2012

I try to focus on using up makeup products because in my whole life I have managed to empty only one single (and tiny) cream blush. It was my first blush and it was by Maxfactor and very, very tiny and still, I needed many years to empty it. I've read on different beauty blogs that others sometimes only need up to 6 months for a powder blush or an eye shadow. This is very cool and I am a bit jealous. I keep buying this stuff and it never gets empty ...

A couple of days ago, however, I managed to empty 2 makeup products at once. See them here:

16 Aug 2012

Last weekend I've been visiting my parents and my mom gave me two beauty items as a present. One is an eye cream by Louis Widmer which she likes and the other one is a body lotion by Olivenöl which she does not like. I am curious whether I will like them and I am looking very much forward to trying them! :-)

15 Aug 2012

I'm going on vacation. Yay! My boyfriend had to force me because I am a bit obsessed with my sports routine and my thesis at the moment. Believe it or not, we even had a bit of a fight when I told him that I didn't have time to take holidays. Well, he convinced me and now I am really glad that he was so persistent and forced happiness upon me.

We'll spend 6 days in a hut in the black forest together with friends. Hence, we will have a lot of fun and a great time hiking, barbecuing, lying in the sun and relaxing. Have a look at what expects me (notice that I've found the picture on the web; this is not our precise destination - but in the black forest it looks like that just about everywhere :-)):

Currently, I am trying to improve my organization in general and this holds also for the organization of my traveling: this means that I am optimizing packing routines and joining similar things together in small bags in order to find them more quickly in the luggage - this holds also for my everyday small distance traveling to University and back. E.g. I pack my electronic stuff together in a small bag, my beauty stuff in another small bag, etc. In this way, I always just have to grab a few small bags and don't have to remember each item itself. I might show you some of my organizational improvements soon.

10 Aug 2012

Unfortunately, I have had an inflammation in the beginning of July and as it was pretty bad, I even needed to take Antibiotics. Hence, I wanted to support my body to heal and I have been very careful with sports. Even when the inflammation was gone, I tried to listen to my body and not to exaggerate with any kind of sports endeavour. This is why I have not done that much sports in July.

Another thing that changed in July is that my horseback riding course ended and at first I considered to start a new course but in the end I decided to rather try some Yoga. The horseback riding classes and the Yoga classes are at the same time and since horseback riding takes also much more time (at least 3 hours with driving to the riding stables, grooming the horse, cleaning hooves, and especially feeding, pampering, cuddling and spoiling the horse :-)), I decided heavy hearted to skip horseback riding this summer altogether. I'm a bit sad and already started to miss horses (I even have visited the horses at my former riding stable in the weekend to cuddle and spoil them without any conditions), but my thesis goes first and I also have to prioritize my spare time and my sports activities. As soon as I have more time, I'll do horseback riding again. For sure.

My aqua running course ended as well and in summer, no courses are offered. Hence, I started to try Pilates and am in love with my Pilates course. I am also in love my Pilates instructor who is incredibly fit and looks up to 20 years younger than he is - he is nearly 60 and looks like 40! - this is something I admire and I definitely think that it is because of him doing Pilates that often. My Pilates course indeed is very demanding and exhausting and I have sore muscles all the time but the results are really great.

The Yoga course is nice as well but I like the Pilates course much more. Below is my sports recap of July.

6 Aug 2012

Of course it depends on our individual state of mind and state of evolution how much pressure we can take. The amount of pressure should neither be too high nor too low. As usual, balance is the key.

But being a member of one of the world's best women's soccer team, I guess that you have to embrace the huge amount of pressure that is put on you. After all they wanted to win the world championship - and the american team indeed also scored the 2nd place.

5 Aug 2012

Posts about monthly beauty favourites are quite common with beauty blogs. I haven't posted one myself yet because I don't see my blog that much as beauty blog although it somehow is because I blog a lot about beauty. It's a beloved hobby and I want to share my experiences with experimenting with beauty products. It's a lot of fun for me to experiment and I also want to share my fun with you. Hence, I thought about posting such a beauty favourites post as well.

However, I sometimes get into the "Using up mode" which drives me to use up stuff I dislike. I try to get rid of stuff when I see that I don't like it. And often throwing stuff away is only the very last option, hence, I turn this "Using up mode" on and just use up. Do you know this "Using up mode", too? Because of this mode, I often don't have that many beauty favourites in a month. And if I have, they don't change that fast. Nevertheless, I would like to share with you what I liked most using in July. Maybe, I'll do this regularly. Let's see. ;-)

Last month I didn't have that many great products for the body. The Dove Blütenzauber body lotion was great, however. But I just didn't use it that often because it wasn't so warm in July and in the end I've been every day at University and there I work in a room with air conditioning. Believe me or not, but because I am working so often on my thesis in this room with air conditioning, I haven't worn sandals at all yet this year. In this room it's just too cold for sandals and the Dove Blütenzauber body lotion. From the products I used up in July, I especially enjoyed the Weleda Sanddorn body lotion sample and the Alverde Lemon Love body lotion. Also the soap by Alverde was great. This was actually it with body products.

For my hair, the only noteworthy product is the hair oil by Fructis. I really enjoyed using it in July. Otherwise, I did not use any noteworthy products that might have any potential for becoming favourites.

3 Aug 2012

A new product I recently discovered is hair oil. I would never have used any hair oil if it wasn't for the Pink Box. In my Pink Box July, a hair oil from Garnier Fructis has been included and although I don't like this company and also would have never used any hair oil before, I decided to give it a try. And what can I say? Surprisingly, I love it. The scent is great and it is very light. It might be my fault but I cannot apply it without making my hair look greasy. But that's no problem, I use it in the evening and wash it out in the morning and my hair is looking wonderful and I don't need a conditioner either.

After having been surprised in such a nice way by the Garnier Fructis hair oil, I also bought the hair oil by Alverde and gave it a try as well. But the hair oil by Garnier Fructis is much better. The scent is better and it feels much better in the hair and is less greasy and after washing it out in the morning, my hair looks more fluffy and shiny and just much more beautiful.

In case you have rather dry hair or have to wash it on a daily basis like I have to, I recommend the Garnier Fructis "Wunder-Öl" hair oil. It is a really great product and my hair loves it. I use it once or twice a week, depending on how dry my hair is and on how often I use conditioner.

Here is a picture of the two hair oils (Alverde & Garnier Fructis) I tried up to now (I might try some more soon ;-)):

2 Aug 2012

Recently I've been pharmacy shopping again and bought the samples shown below. Actually, it's not that recently but even a couple of weeks ago. I simply forgot to show you the pictures. I also already tried two of the products and will tell you my first impressions below.

1 Aug 2012

Last month, I emptied or got rid of 2624 products. Again, 75 of them are makeup products that haven't been
emptied completely but makeup products are not that easy to empty and the wearability can be an issue that shouldn't be neglected. With most of the make up products the problem has indeed been the wearability. Either I did not like the colours on me or they did not fit to my kind of lifestyle. The lip gloss by H&M was just not comfortable to wear and hence, I did not want to torture myself with it. Hence, I used stuff up and also did some kind of decluttering.

Usually, I enjoy writing the beauty empties post more than writing any other kind of post in this blog because I experience using up and decluttering as very relieving. Throwing the empty bottles away after having taken photos is the best of all. :-))

Here is a picture of all products I emptied/got rid of in July:

A short summary and my thoughts about the products, I emptied in July:

30 Jul 2012

29 Jul 2012

Dear readers, the book review below is written in German because the book has been published only in German up to now. This is a pitty because it really is a great book. However, as the interested audience will be german-speaking anyway, I believe that a German review is more appropriate than an English one. Many apologies if this causes any inconvenience.

27 Jul 2012

Since I wasn't that happy with my last Pink Box (see my Pink Box July post here) and wanted to try more organic products anyway, I subscribed with the twist.bag. The twist.bag is shipped from Switzerland and is available for 15 Swiss francs within Switzerland, Austria and Germany. Converted in Euro, there is nearly no difference to the Pink Box price. Note also, that it costs 15 Swiss francs independently from where you order - it can be either Switzerland or Austria or Germany.

I think that an organic beauty box is a great idea because I personally always prefer a good organic product over a non-organic one which is not better. Unfortunately, many organic products often aren't that good. It depends on the product category. Hence, I was really happy when I discovered the twist.b Bag as it is a great opportunity to try more organic products.

The twist bag is always shipped on the 15th of each month. In July, the 15th was a Sunday. Hence, I assume that it was shipped on Monday the 16th. As it was shipped from Switzerland, it took quite some time to arrive at my destination. More specifically, it arrived last Wednesday and hence, it took the parcel 1.5 weeks to arrive.

See the pictures and the products that came with my Twist Bag July below. This is what was contained in the parcel: A jute bag (with the products inside) and an orange letter.